Farther Finance Advisors LLC Acquires 432 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 432 shares during the quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $441,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CNP. Atria Investments Inc lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 77.6% during the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 22,014 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $648,000 after purchasing an additional 9,619 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 15.2% during the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 4,205 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $124,000 after buying an additional 556 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 20,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $604,000 after buying an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. ING Groep NV bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter valued at $2,564,000. Finally, OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 7.5% during the third quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,497 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $250,000 after acquiring an additional 590 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of CNP opened at $35.52 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.18 billion, a PE ratio of 22.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $35.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.40. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. As a group, research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.48%. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 55.35%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CNP shares. Barclays upped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Evercore ISI upgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $32.77.

About CenterPoint Energy

CenterPoint Energy, Inc operates as a public utility holding company in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Electric and Natural Gas. The Electric segment includes electric transmission and distribution services to electric customers and electric generation assets, as well as optimizes assets in the wholesale power market.